Glasgow pioneers free Intellectual Property for industry
Last week the University of Glasgow took the bold step of becoming the first university in the UK to offer intellectual property to businesses and entrepreneurs for free!
University of Glasgow Principal Anton Muscatelli explained the rationale behind the move: “One of the core missions of the University is the creation, advancement and sharing of knowledge and we aim to transfer as much IP into commercial use as we can, to the benefit of our partners, the community and the economy. Our objective is to demonstrate the relevance, importance and impact of Glasgow’s research and to help UK companies maximise their competitive edge internationally.”
I have heard a similar idea tossed around within Ireland, particularly in the context of the governments Innovation Taskforce Report (PDF), but unfortunately it seems to have been quickly dismissed due to entrenched interests. As I have said previously, in general universities are brilliant factories of knowledge but poor profit maximising entities, a fact that was highlighted in a Forfas report released earlier this year:
There is an unrealistic expectation that TTOs can be profitable and that
commercialisation deals can bring in funds to support research budgets.Page 52 of The Review of supports for exploitation of Intellectual Property from Higher Education Research (PDF)
Ireland is blessed with relatively tractable ecosystem which makes it perfect for running small experiments (wireless systems, sensor networks, etc.) that would normally be impossible in places like the U.S. & U.K. Perhaps with the support of Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, IDA as well as the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem we can encourage further experimentation with alternative models of technology transfer across the Irish higher-education institutions.
FYI: You can take a look at their Easy Access IP portal here www.glasgow.ac.uk/technology
- University of Glasgow gives away software, patents, consulting (boingboing.net)
- University of Glasgow gives away software, patents, consulting (gla.ac.uk)
